Golf requires a certain amount of gripping force with the club to allow swinging action and impact with a golf ball. Golfers who experience a weakened grip due to complications with arthritis, carpal tunnel syndrome, accretions of hand and wrist injuries, congenital defects, nerve injury and normal aging processes lack the sufficient gripping power needed to ensure golf club stability, control and alignment during swing and impact with the golf ball. For those people who are afflicted with a weakened grip, they may find golf virtually impossible to play. Golfers with weakened hand strength, or golfers who have not been taught a fundamentally sound or technically correct grip configuration, will often have difficulty squaring the clubface at impact with the golf ball which can lead to twisting of the golf club and club face thus producing an inaccurate shot. Inaccurate shots veer from the intended trajectory. Furthermore, as a golfer's hands fatigue during a round of golf, play becomes even more difficult and the club may completely slip out of the hands and become airborne creating a serious hazard to people standing nearby.
The golfing and sporting industries have not adequately addressed the problems encountered by those with weakened hand strength. Furthermore, these industries have not provided effective grip training aids for teaching golfers a technically correct gripping configuration.
Although there are many schools of thought regarding the correct grip of the gripping portion of the golf club shaft, golf instruction schools predominately teach 2 (two) styles of a gripping configuration. In the Vardon grip, the little finger on the trailing hand (the one placed lower on the club—right hand for a right—handed player) is placed between the index and middle finger on the lead hand (the hand that is higher on the club). The lead-hand thumb should fit in the “lifeline” of the trailing hand. The second technique teaches that the grip should be located in the palm of the hands avoiding interlocking between the fingers. This 2nd style is referred to as the “Natural Grip.”
There have been some other attempts to solve these problems. Some golfers have resorted to the use of pine tar which is obviously not very effective as the pine tar only lasts a short time requiring frequent re-application which can also transfer pine tar to clothing, golf ball and equipment further hindering the player's game. Some grip manufactures have integrated enlarged golf grips, or raised ridges or dots on the grip surface. However, these changes do not sufficiently solve the aforementioned problems.
Unfortunately, the prior art offered in the marketplace has not solved these issues. U.S. Pat. No. 5,742,942 does attempt to enable a person to attain a better grasp of the golf club. However, this product is cumbersome to use. The strap mechanism is difficult and awkward to fasten around a person hand (s). If a golfer is experiencing bilateral weakness thus requiring both hands to be strapped, third party assistance may be required. In addition, this product may be embarrassing for some golfers to use in the company of friends, family or strangers due to its appearance and laborious application.
Therefore, what is clearly needed in the golfing industry is a system and or apparatus that enables golfers and other athletes with a weakened grip to grasp a club with the appropriate force as to stabilize the golf club and avoid club head twisting at impact with the golf ball. Moreover, the invention described herein, comprised of a specially configured golf glove and gripping portion of a golf club shaft, can provide the solution to enable a golfer handicapped by weakened and insufficient hand grip strength to play golf. In addition, the system and or apparatus imparts a feel nearly identical with that of existing golf gloves and the gripping portion of the golf shaft with the special features thereof not readily noticeable to other golfers.